ITV Racing Tips: Simply sensational Saturday with Ascot’s Champions Day

This is a special occasion and then some - Ascot's annual British Champions Day. An opportunity to wonder yet again at Frankie Dettori's Magnificent Seven back in 1996, as he sensationally went through the card. What an absolutely amazing achievement; pretty much beyond comprehension, really.

The ITV cameras are in situ on Saturday to capture all the Champions Day thrills (SEVEN fabulous heats), including FIVE at G1 level. We get underway at 12:55, and there's a brilliant array of talent at various trips lined up for our entertainment.

If you're playing, have fun. These are some of the best horses in our sport, and we're so lucky to have them.

Horse Racing Odds

Fast Racing Results

Full ITV schedule;

Ascot

12:55 - 2m British Champions Long Distance Cup G1
13:30 - 6f British Champions 2-y-old Conditions Stakes
14:05 - 6f British Champions Sprint Stakes G1
14:45 - 1m 4f British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes G1
15:25 - 1m Queen Elizabeth II Stakes G1
16:05 - 1m 2f Champion Stakes G1
16:40 - 1m Balmoral Handicap

Rationale;

12.55 - Trawlerman @ 1/2

Got to be the best stayer in training right now. A seven-year-old gelded son of the great Golden Horn, trained by Team Gosden, and an integral part of the Godolphin operation.

Trawlerman is well clear on official marks, and more importantly on the evidence of what he's achieved on the track. A 7l win in Ascot's Gold Cup, from Illinois. Defeating that good yardstick Sweet William in York's Lonsdale, at the Ebor meeting in August when last seen. Top-drawer efforts with no discernible chink in the armour.

He's tough, winds up for a big finish some way from home, and relentlessly gallops his rivals into submission. This will only be his fifth start in 2025 so hopefully he shouldn't be over the top, and since Kyprios departed the scene earlier this year he's very much been the man.

If he's fit and well that surely continues in Berkshire on Saturday in what's a fantastic curtain-raiser to an awesome day's racing.

13:30 - Division @ 5/1

A 6f Conditions Stakes race for juveniles, a warm favourite, but dangerous opponents with plenty of scope for improvement.

Godolphin and Appleby/Buick field Words Of Truth, a gelded son of Lope De Vega, and he's easily best-in on official ratings. However (there's always a however); William Haggas saddles Division, a Kingman colt who really announced himself as a serious horse at York taking the Listed Rockingham Stakes when last seen, a week ago. Wathnan's retained pilot James Doyle is doing the pushing.

It's interesting that connections (Wathnan Racing own) are out again so soon and after that big personal best on the Knavesmire. He might have about 9lb to find to upset likely hotpot Words Of Truth but that's difficult, not impossible.

Division was second on debut at Windsor on August 23 and since then has won three times, in progressive fashion. This is another terrific affair and while the favourite could easily be good enough I'm hoping our selection has a bit tucked up his sleeve.

14:05 - Lazzat @ 10/3

Speedsters go 6f for a first-prize pot of over £300k.

Our selection is Lazzat, another Wathnan Racing-owned conveyance ridden as usual by James Doyle. The four-year-old Territories gelding was perhaps a shade disappointing at Haydock (G1) when last seen 42 days ago, finishing 2.5l behind Big Mojo, who reopposes today.

Same 6f trip but he's back at Ascot now, scene of his impressive G1 Jubilee Stakes win at the Royal meeting. If he's back in that kind of form he'll take all the beating and I'm banking on French trainer Jérôme Reynier having him spot-on for this.

Lifetime record of eight wins from 13 starts is testament to his ability and on official ratings he's got the edge, too.

14:45 - Estrange @ 4/1

David O'Meara trains this one in Upper Hemsley, North Yorkshire, and she races in the famous silks of the Cheveley Park Stud.

Estrange is a four-year-old Night Of Thunder filly who when last seen got to within 3.5l of brave and brilliant Arc runner-up Minnie Hauk in the Yorkshire Oaks in August. Prior to that she'd rattled off a hat-trick in Listed, G3, then G2 company, and she's smart.

Kalpana is way ahead of her field on official marks but I'm not 100% convinced we're seeing her very best at the moment, so I'm happy to row in with Danny Tudhope's charge, who he's ridden in all but one of her six starts.

15:25 - Fallen Angel @ 13/2

By my estimations it could be a red-letter day and then some for Wathnan Racing, who I'm backing to prevail again here in the straight-mile QE11.

Fallen Angel may well be what appears when you ask your provider of choice to 'show me something ultra-game and resolute in a finish.' The four-year-old Too Darn Hot filly just keeps rolling, keeps finding, and is a tremendous credit to herself and all the team at Karl Burke's North Yorkshire base.

The Doyler is once again in the saddle and boasts an enviable 26% strike-rate as I write, over the last 14 days. Little surprise with rides of this quality, and given the way she took the G1 Sun Chariot at HQ when last seen 14 days ago this tilt against the big boys (notably Rosallion and Field Of Gold) is well-deserved.

She has a bit to find with the last-named of those talented colts but he's got a pretty ordinary display at Goodwood in the Sussex to banish from the memory, and in any event none will find the filly anything other than difficult to overcome in the race's crucial, latter moments.

In short - what a horse race.

16:05 - Delacroix @ 7/2

If the previous contest is a humdinger, could this 10f G1 Champion Stakes be, if anything, even more so?

Some of the G1 victories this field bring to the table encompass several of the season's standout events in the calendar. My selection Delacroix carries in his saddlebag the Ballysax, the Eclipse and the Irish Champion Stakes. Others boast similar - how about Calandagan's King George and Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud; or the brilliant Ombudsman's Juddmonte, and Prince Of Wales Stakes?

I'm siding with Aidan O'Brien's Delacroix after much head-scratching and deliberation. He rather bombed out in the Betfred Epsom Derby when, let's not forget, the 2/1 favourite. He was bumped and buffeted and it just wasn't his day.

Far better judged on his Eclipse success, where despite Ombudsman getting first run he reeled in that rival in the shadows of the post, but couldn't repeat the feat in York's Juddmonte, losing out to his old foe by 3.5l.

It was fast ground on those flat, galloping Knavesmire acres and he couldn't get there in time; while at Sandown, a stiffer test all round, he ate up the ground very late in the piece.

Ascot is somewhere in between the two tracks for severity, but is in any event much tougher than York. I'm hoping Delacroix can stay competitive and be within range to pounce late as he did in Esher; with Calandagan no doubt having a very similar plan, just to muddy the waters!

I won't be investing any heroic stakes, as it's far too beautifully poised to harbour any very firm views. But in terms of a race to relish and savour it's right up there, with bells on.

16:40 - Crown Of Oaks @ 9/2

The lucky last already; and a fiendishly-tricky big-field, straight-mile handicap for which we're paying five places each-way.

As I write it's not exactly a magnificent e/w price, but at around 9/2 or thereabouts it's still the way to go for me. Crown Of Oaks is a three-year-old Wootton Bassett gelding with the prolific Tony Bloom listed as one of his owners; is trained by all-conquering Newmarket maestro William Haggas; and will be ridden by the outstanding Tom Marquand.

The selection is two-from six lifetime, and when last seen 34 days ago in a very hot Curragh handicap he ran a blinder to be third of 21, beaten 2.75l. That followed two progressive handicap wins off 79 and 85 at Ayr and Ascot respectively; and after those heroics in Ireland off 93, he's up to a mark of 99 today.

Plenty on his plate then, but this is an improving type with a fine attitude and bags of potential. His trainer hasn't been able to stop having winners for seemingly an age (currently operating at around a 20% strike-rate over the past 14 days, but it's been much higher), and the jockey is close behind stats-wise.

Very decent weight too in the context of this heat - he carries 8st 12lb, with 9st 12lb being the top and 8st 10lb the joint-lowest.

A huge puzzle to round off proceedings then on what I'm sure you'll agree is a simply sensational Saturday.

ITV Racing Tips from Betfred Insights.